This article was originally published at Madison Independent Examiner. The video that is referenced in this article is available for viewing there.

Credit: Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

More and more people from all walks of life and all professions seem to be
questioning the "official" narrative of what happened on 9/11. Those who are
questioning the events of 9/11 may be moving under the radar of the corporate media
from being labeled "conspiracy theorists" to legitimate investigators with
legitimate questions and concerns.

A good example is Jesse Ventura's recent appearance on CNN's Piers
Morgan. Ventura, an ex-navy SEAL and former governor
of Minnesota who
hosts a program on TruTV called "Conspiracy Theory," appeared on Morgan's show
last week. After discussing 9/11, Morgan tried to dismiss Ventura and said he has "crackpot" ideas. Ventura then asked the
audience, "How many people think I make crackpot points?" Only one audience
member acknowledged. He then asked, "How many people think I make sensible
points?" Almost the entire audience applauded him. See video here. That
segment can be found at 32:10.

Another good example is Colorado PBS's airing of a documentary film that was
created by Architects and Engineers for
9/11 truth. It is the first time a major news network has aired anything
like it. The documentary, entitled "9/11: Explosive Evidence --
Experts Speak Out," features dozens of architects and engineers who
unequivocally state that the twin towers, and WTC 7 which was not hit by a
plane, were brought down by controlled demolition. (You can watch the full-length
film here for a limited time before it is only available for purchase on
DVD).

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If the official story that fires brought the buildings down is to be
believed, then 9/11 was an architectural and engineering disaster that should
have led to an urgent and exhaustive inquiry, along with suggestions for
improvements and upgrades for other buildings of the same construction.

The film has a section near the end in which psychologists explain why the
media and many of the public are so reluctant to question the official story.
The reasons come down to trauma, belief in authority and cognitive dissonance.
People simply do not want to believe anything that contradicts their "world
view" and their faith in the authorities that provide their security.
Confronted with contradictory evidence, people resort to denial as a defense
mechanism.

According to Victoria
Alexander, writing for Digital Journal, three days before the 11th
anniversary of the World
Trade Center
tragedy, the documentary ranked number three among "most watched"
documentaries on PBS and number one among "most shared." "With the
presidential election only weeks away, both the Republicans and Democrats, as
equally staunch defenders of the official story, stand to be affected if the
public's suspicion of government corruption grows deeper."

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Questions regarding the events of 9/11 and studies are nothing new. They
have been taking place for years. For years the internet has been full of
information like this, a
collection of hundreds of links questioning the official story of 9/11.
Several versions of a documentary entitled "Loose
Change" were released between 2005 and 2009 and generated over 50 million
hits on the internet.

In August of 2004, a Zogby
poll revealed that half of New Yorkers believe U.S. leaders had foreknowledge of
impending 9/11 attacks and "consciously failed" to act. 66 percent at the time
called for a new probe of unanswered questions by Congress or New York's Attorney General. That poll was
ignored by mainstream media.

In 2006 The
Washington Post reported that even members of 9/11 commission
suspected deception on the part of authorities. "We to this day don't know
why NORAD [the North American Aerospace Defense Command] told us what they told
us," said Thomas H. Kean, the former New Jersey Republican governor who
led the commission. "It was just so far from the truth....It's one of
those loose ends that never got tied."

In 2009 a research paper was published by several scientists in The
Open Chemical Physics Journal in which traces of nanothermite, a
military-grade explosive used to cut steel, were found in four separate samples
of dust from the World
Trade Center
site that were analyzed by scientists. The conclusion:

Based on these observations, we conclude that
the red layer of the red/gray chips we have discovered in the WTC dust is
active, unreacted thermitic material, incorporating nanotechnology, and is a
highly energetic pyrotechnic or explosive material.

That study, however, never made it out of academic circles and into the
mainstream media. In a true criminal investigation, the findings in that report
could be considered real forensic evidence that more than jet fuel caused the
collapse of the buildings on 9/11.

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Another fact that has never been publicized in mainstream media is the
amount of credible people that question the events of 9/11. The corporate media
publicizes questions by people such as Rosie O'Donnell and Charlie Sheen, but
ignore the people listed on Patriots
Question 9/11, which include over 3000 professionals from the military,
government, academia, engineering, aviation, architecture, etc., that question
the official story. A quick browse of the list reveals that these are not a
bunch of "crackpots," but are professionals who have the knowledge and skills
in their fields to ask legitimate questions about what really
happened on 9/11.

One key distinction between the 9/11 truth movement and conspiracy
theorists, however, is that the 9/11 truth movement and many of the victim's
families have simply been calling for a new investigation, not making
allegations as to whom are really behind the attacks. Some, however, do go
further than that.

Dr. Kevin Barrett, a Ph.D. expert on Arabic and Islam cultures, is one of America's
best-known critics of the war on terror. Barrett,
writing for Press TV, quotes Alan Sabrosky, former Director of Strategic
Studies at the U.S. Army War College:

Gregory Patin is a free-lance writer residing in Madison, WI. He earned a BA in political science from the University of Wisconsin - Madison and a MS in IT management from Colorado Tech. He is politically independent and not affiliated with either (more...)